In recent years, a television has been becoming high-functional, so that the television has an increased number of input source types, external connection terminals, and user operation menus. This requires a user to select a plurality of menu items so as to cause the television to display, on its television screen, content which the user desires to watch.
Not only a high-functional television set merely receives a broadcast wave and then displays an image, but also the high-functional television set has been used more and more as a display monitor of a moving image or a still image provided by a device on a home network or internet content. Since a user operation has been accordingly becoming complicated as described above, a user interface which is simple and less stressful is demanded.
The following Patent Literature 1 discloses an image display device capable of displaying a menu screen without interrupting an image displayed on a screen.
More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 64, the image display device is configured such that an image to be displayed on a screen 100 of a display section is compressed and then displayed in a substantially central part of the display section as a small-sized screen 101, in a case where a menu button of a remote control transmitter is pressed. In a periphery of the small-sized screen 101, a menu screen 300 which is made up of a plurality of menu items a to h is displayed so as to surround the small-sized screen 101. One of the plurality of menu items a to h is displayed together with a cursor 400. The image display device stores an operation frequency of each of the plurality of menu items a to h. In accordance with the operation frequency of each of the plurality of menu items a to h, the plurality of menu items a to h on the menu screen 300 are rearranged.
Note that, in a case where a user presses a “NO” button of the remote control transmitter, the plurality of menu items a to h of the menu screen 300 are sequentially moved in a clockwise direction or a counterclockwise direction so that a desired one of the plurality of menu items a to h is moved to a position at which the cursor 400 is displayed.
Further, the following Patent Literature 2 discloses a display method and a display device each of which realizes, in an electronic apparatus which displays a menu screen, a display mode which allows a hierarchical structure and the like of the menu screen to be easily understood from a display.
More specifically, as illustrated in FIG. 65, in a case where an input state of the electronic apparatus is displayed by the menu screen, a ring 200 is displayed on a screen and a plurality of icons 201 to 205 are displayed at predetermined intervals on the ring 200. In a case where an operation of selecting an item on the menu screen is carried out, each of the plurality of icons 201 to 205 displayed on the ring 200 is rotated on the ring 200 while an order of arrangement of the plurality of icons 201 to 205 is being maintained. In a case where an operation of confirming the selected item on the menu screen is carried out, an input operation related to an icon displayed at a specific position on the ring 200 can be performed.
Note that, in this example, a ring 210 which indicates that there is a menu in a lower layer is provided with respect to the icon 201 indicated as “specific function”, and the ring 210 is displayed around the icon 201 in a smaller diameter.
Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 66, the following Patent Literature 3 discloses a car navigation system including (i) menu item display means for displaying a plurality of menu items while arranging the plurality of menu items circularly on a display screen and (ii) menu item rotating means for rotating each of the plurality of menu items arranged in a circle clockwise or counterclockwise in response to a command supplied from an input unit. The menu item display means displays a menu item arranged at a specific position on the display screen as a selected item.
Moreover, the following Patent Literature 4 discloses an audio/video control system in which a plurality of devices are connected to a controller and an operation of each of the plurality of devices is controlled in response to a user's instruction given to the controller. On a touch panel display screen of the audio/image control system, a top screen is displayed upon activation of power. On the top screen, a plurality of content selecting buttons are displayed. Button names of these content selecting buttons are changeable with other button names that are not displayed on the top screen.
When replacing button names, the top screen is exchanged to a content-disposed screen. The content-disposed screen has (i) a TOP-selected-content display region in which names of a plurality of content selecting buttons which should be displayed on the top screen are displayed and (ii) a spare-content display region in which names of a plurality of spare-content selecting buttons which are prepared in advance in addition to the plurality of content selecting buttons are displayed.